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Manufacturing process innovation (MPI), an organization-wide effort involving radical redesign of manufacturing related processes and systems to achieve dramatic improvements in critical manufacturing performance measures, encompasses various kinds of activities. Some MPI initiatives focus on technological innovation and others may intend to change work processes and organizations’ behavioral routines. Some organizations adopt new technological solutions or work methods that are externally available, while others may develop and adopt novel technologies or organizational routines which are new to the state of the art. Different focus in MPI initiatives requires different approaches and preconditions for achieving desired outcomes. However, MPI has been mostly treated as one type of innovation in literature and further classifications of MPI have not been made. This paper presents four types of MPI and discusses what managers can expect and prepare for each type of MPI. Basic strategic directions in terms of what type of MPI can be conducted at a specific organization is also discussed. The four types of MPI is developed through a literature review of various research fields, for instance manufacturing strategy, process innovation, organizational innovation, typology of innovation, and new product development.

Manufacturing functions need to be capable of constantly developing new manufacturing lines, cells, and pieces of equipment in order to maintain their operational competitiveness. This paper explores a unique approach to analyzing and designing manufacturing processes referred to as the Value Adding Process Point (VAPP) approach. This approach particularly focuses on the points where value is added to materials in manufacturing processes. The approach is mostly used at Japanese companies and it has contributed to developing unique manufacturing lines, cells, and pieces of equipment that tend to be simple, slim, and compact, and require low investment cost. The approach has also contributed to achieving major improvements in different performance measures in manufacturing. However, the approach is rarely known internationally. Moreover, the amount of practical information on how to apply the approach at companies has been limited in the scarce literature on the approach. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the VAPP approach to a broader audience and also to provide practical information on how to apply the approach by describing a case study in which the approach was applied at a Swedish manufacturing company. At the company, the application was made in a manner of experiential learning. In this paper, it is described how the VAPP approach was applied, what outcomes were generated by the application, and how participants in the case study experienced the application of the approach. Discussions are made as to usefulness of the approach and effective use of the approach.

Many manufacturing organizations in developed countries need to be proficient in not only incremental improvements but also radical innovations. Radical innovations largely depend on exploration capabilities, in other words capabilities of searching, discovering, and developing radically new systems, processes, and operational practices. Since many manufacturing organizations are proficient in incremental improvements, an important challenge for them is to develop the exploration capabilities across the organizations. However, little knowledge has been accumulated as to how to develop such capabilities in practice. The main purpose of this paper is to propose an approach to building organization’s exploration capabilities. In the approach, the capabilities are built through leaders iteratively and deliberately creating situations where groups in an organization have to or can be more explorative. The approach is made by analogy from how organizational changes toward lean manufacturing were driven by an experienced lean consultant. In addition, this paper presents a model of how to practically apply the approach at companies. The model is developed firstly based on existing theories then modified through employing the model at a manufacturing company.